Free Web NovelChapter 1379: Chapter 657 Mars-1 Lifts Off! Mars Exploration Sets Sail!_2
For the true elites, the opportunity to ride a spacecraft for sightseeing was much more precious, and more than two million renminbi was not considered anything at all, it was far from even a small fraction of their wealth.
The senior leader showed interest and asked, "After I retire, if I want to ride your sightseeing ship, could I get a discount then?"
"Free of charge!"
Zhao Yi said with a smile, "If there’s a cost, I’ll cover it for you."
"Haha——"
After hearing this, the senior leader laughed. He was indeed looking forward to it.
In fact, what stood in the way of him riding a space sightseeing ship wasn’t the ticket price, but issues of status and position. Unless the sightseeing ship could guarantee absolute safety, even the slightest danger was unacceptable. Because even after retirement, he would still hold a high status and influence, and others would prevent him from taking risks.
——
The Aerospace Bureau’s Mars Mission Center was making steady progress in the final preparations.
During the last phase of work, most tasks involved testing the equipment and verifying data. There was a significant amount of data that needed to be checked, and the most crucial software systems also required detailed testing.
Among these, the most important was an automatic control system.
The Mars-1 spacecraft’s Intelligent Control System, once fed the necessary operations for the spacecraft, could execute missions without human control. However, due to the spacecraft’s large size and the lack of precise data about the landing site on Mars, astronauts needed to assist with operations.
Yixing’s main responsibility was the software system, with the Intelligent Control System being just one aspect, on top of a complex computational framework.
Zhao Yi was in charge of testing this part of the project, as the computational framework was most critical.
Even without the automatic control system, astronauts could manually complete the mission, but they couldn’t possibly operate the craft manually to slide into orbit with accuracy. During their operation of the spacecraft, they required an accurate computational support system.
Precision in controlling the spacecraft’s trajectory was essential.
For example, entering the shuttle orbit.
During this process, the spacecraft’s speed and direction needed to be very precise. In other words, to ensure timely entry into the shuttle orbit, the ship needed to arrive at a predetermined location at a specified time with the predetermined direction and speed.
Additionally, the spacecraft’s control cabin needed to communicate with the ground in time to know the exact moment the Z-wave Generator released Z-waves and established the space shuttle corridor.
Even a slight deviation in any of these factors could potentially lead to significant issues.
In reality, some deviation could be tolerated, but the allowable range was extremely small, mainly due to insufficient energy and power. fгeewebnovёl.com
Z-wave devices could only be activated once. If activated a second time, a process of accumulating energy would be necessary.
Furthermore, the Mars-1 spacecraft also needed to accumulate energy to accelerate and complete the shuttle.
In summary, all these issues related to energy and power dynamics.
If the Mars-1 spacecraft failed to enter the designated orbit on time, it would have to rely on solar power to slowly return to Earth. Since Mars is very far from Earth, the return journey would take over five months.
This was the emergency plan.
The Mars-1 spacecraft was stocked with more than a year’s worth of food, sufficient for the astronauts’ needs, but the main constraint was water.
Water was not just for drinking; it was also needed for oxygen generation through water electrolysis.
Breathing was the largest consumption.
Water electrolysis for oxygen production was efficient, with theoretically one liter of water being enough for an astronaut’s daily breathing needs.
However, over a long period, the consumption was significant. On the Mars-1 spacecraft, even urine had to be utilized. Theoretically, the longest sustained duration was nine months; beyond that, without resupply, the astronauts would suffocate due to the lack of oxygen needed for breathing.
Of course.
In relation to the mission, nine months was ample time.
As long as there were no accidents with the smaller spacecraft, support could still be provided from the ground, such as dispatching another spacecraft to dock with the mission-engaged Mars-1.
The Mars-1 spacecraft was equipped with a connecting device on top, which could be used for space docking and the transportation of supplies.
——
After a week of preparation work, the time to carry out the mission arrived.
The exploration mission to Mars continued to be broadcast live and attracted attention from the entire world, with sixty-one countries relaying the process of exploration.
As the media said, "The Mars exploration mission represents a significant breakthrough in humanity’s quest to explore the universe, marking mankind’s official venture beyond Earth."
Previously, the furthest humanity had reached was the moon, which is only three hundred thousand kilometers from Earth—relatively close in comparison.
Mars is different.
Now, Mars is more than eighty million kilometers away from Earth, which is over two hundred and sixty times the distance between Earth and the moon. Exploring the moon and exploring Mars are not on the same scale at all.
Additionally, there is the involvement of technology.
Exploring the moon relied on fossil fuels and solar power for energy.
The Mars exploration mission, however, relies on space shuttle technology, which is much faster than moon exploration missions, and in terms of solar power, it is dependent on space light energy transmission technology, which is not on the same level as ordinary solar power.
Although it is a major breakthrough for human space exploration, it can be plainly said to be a domestic breakthrough, as no other country was involved.
Many top countries were very unwilling and regretful, but they had no way to catch up, because they lagged too far behind in relevant technologies.
The direction of space exploration has changed completely compared to a few years ago, with domestic leadership in the development of the aerospace industry, while foreign countries do not even have the qualifications to participate.
In fact, domestically, there has been a new openness in related technology applications, on the condition that absolute dominance in technology and exploration related fields must be maintained.
Other countries and organizations cannot accept this.
Those international top-tier countries and organizations do not wish to be dominated in any field, perhaps because their mindset has not yet shifted, or perhaps they still harbor hopes of developing the technology themselves. They are not willing to engage in related negotiations, because they know they would be in a very passive position. At most, they could gain participant status, such as sending astronauts and scientists to join the mission, but it’s impossible for them to gain any technological benefits.
Of course.
They might be able to obtain the rights to purchase core devices.
For example, devices that can emit anti-gravity fields, enabling the construction of spacecraft capable of space travel.
But the problem is, to perform space travel, you still need to rely on the domestic Z-wave Generator.
Moreover, if any problems arise with the purchased core devices, they must rely on domestic help to repair them.
There lies the problem.
If you do not master the core technologies, you will be in a completely passive position during cooperation, even if you were involved in the manufacturing process, you would only be responsible for some peripheral parts of the production.
That’s exactly the case with the spacecraft project.
All the core devices are independently manufactured domestically, and other countries and organizations simply cannot get involved, nor can they grasp any technology.
This mission was led by Yixing, and although Yixing is a normally operating company, some countries and organizations hoped to find a breakthrough with Yixing Company, but the only thing they could do was to hold up the import review of Yixing Unlimited Power Automobiles.
But it seems to have no meaning whatsoever.
The Unlimited Power Automobiles produced by Yixing haven’t even fully satisfied the domestic market and are not in a rush to export abroad.
Selling cars to foreign countries would be highly beneficial for Yixing, as different geographical longitudes result in variations in the sunrise and sunset times, and people’s different time habits can stagger driving times, which can to some extent increase the production of Unlimited Power Cars. However, losing the markets of other countries only affects the profits marginally.
Yixing is indeed a normally operating company, but the real leader is Zhao Yi, not a ’profit-chasing’ conglomerate. Zhao Yi can make his own decisions, and being short of some profits has no impact on him since he is already one of the world’s top wealthy individuals.
The time had come.
The television broadcast switched to the slowly rising anti-gravity thruster.
The anti-gravity thruster, carrying the Mars-1 spacecraft, quickly ascended into the air, and then it turned into a small dot, disappearing from view on the ground.
